Playlist: 7 education ideas from unlikely places

Geoffrey Canada gives a very interesting analogy in today’s TED Talk: He compares the current education system in the United States to the era when banks were only open between the hours of 10am and 3pm.

[ted_talkteaser id=1732]“Now, who can bank between 10 and 3?” asks Canada to a big laugh. “It went on for decades. You know why? Because they didn’t care. It wasn’t about the customers. It was about bankers … Now one day, some crazy banker had an idea. Maybe we should keep the bank open when people come home from work?”

What do “bankers’ hours” have to with education? Well, Canada says, many of the US education system’s similar ingrained habits — long summer vacations, testing at the end of the school year — go against everything we know about student learning. And yet these old habits continue. As Canada puts it: “Here’s a business…